The iPhone is now America's best selling phone, becoming the first smart phone to top the list. It knocked off Motorola's Razr, which held the top spot for three straight years (12 quarters). (Source: MSNBC)

The trendy iPhone continues to surpass sales expectations despite its share of problems

Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who is listed on the iPhone patent as one of the device's inventors, has been thrilled with sales. He and his company were pleased that the reception for the latest iteration of the device, the iPhone 3G, remained warm despite a number of various problems, including reception issues.

Days ago, the iPhone passed an important metric, knocking Blackberry off as the top smart phone in terms of customer satisfaction among business users. Now the phone as achieved an even loftier accolade, dethroning Motorola's Razr as the best-selling phone in America for Q3 2008.

The new data, coming from NPD (the leading wireless research firm), represents the first time in 3 years that the best-selling Razr failed to top the list.

The NPD reports that overall, cell phone sales are down 15 percent. Despite this and a sagging economy, the iPhone was able to seize the lead. This also comes despite the fact that the overall iPhone price with the service plan factored in was raised with the release of the iPhone 3G.

Obviously, love it or hate it, the chic iPhone is king of the smartphone jungle for the time being. RIM, Google and others may try to knock it off, but in the end it is Apple that did what these competitors could not -- make the first smartphone to become the best selling cell phone in America.

"You can bet that Sony built a long-term business plan about being successful in Japan and that business plan is crumbling." -- Peter Moore, 24 hours before his Microsoft resignation